Fitness Supplements and Pseudoscience

Fitness products use a lot of nonsense terminology to make their products sound legit.  Here are some of the catch phrases you will hear:

“Clinically Proven”
“Scientifically Designed”
 “All Natural”
“Developed in High-Tech Labratories”

These terms are essentially meaningless.  When a supplement claims to be “clinically proven,” for example, there’s really no way of knowing what that means.  How was it proven?

If you really want a reliable standard, look for this phrase: double blind, placebo-controlled study.
Here’s what it means:

Placebo-controlled means one group did not get the supplement being tested—they were instead taking a placebo (a fake).

Double blind means those doing the actual measurements don’t know who got the placebo and who got the actual supplement.  This insures they are not biased in collecting information.

This kind of scientific experiment produces reliable results—you end up with an accurate comparison of the placebo group and the supplement group.

If you want to research a supplement, look for this kind of test.  But most of the junk being sold has no such research to back it up.  The supplement companies instead rely on the before-mentioned catch phrases, paid testimonials, and buyer gullibility.